The family of former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn has issued a fiery statement in response to a report that the University of Rhode Island’s new president has recommended that the institution revoke an honorary degree conferred upon the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, calling the move “corrupt.”
Given that URI President Marc Parlange has held his position only since August, he apparently believes that revoking this honorary degree and one conferred upon former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2003 are top priorities for the school.
The committee overseeing URI’s honorary degrees voted on Dec. 10 to revoke both degrees “based on their findings that General Flynn and Mayor Giuliani no longer represent the highest level of our values and standards that were evident when we first bestowed the degree,” according to a letter to the school’s board of trustees cited by The Providence Journal.
(Due to a punctuation error in the piece by The Journal, it is not possible to know exactly how much of the wording in the previous paragraph is, indeed, a quotation from Parlange’s letter. The above represents our best guess. — Ed. note)
“As a civic institution, URI has the privilege and responsibility to sustain and preserve American democracy by insuring and modeling good citizenship,” Parlange’s letter claimed, according to The Journal. “Revoking these honorary degrees reinforces our values and allows us to lead with truth and integrity.”
“This is another example of cancel culture and ‘wokeness’ in our academic institutions,” Flynn told The Western Journal in exclusive comments. “And I know there is a concerted effort to attack me from certain elements on the Left, mainly because of my very visible stance fighting back against the socialist takeover of our country.”
“It will get national attention in the next 24 hours,” he predicted…